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@shapeshifter your images look lovely. My only experience recently is with a company called Presto Photo, I made a small square soft cover book of some of my photographs with them two years ago. It would cost about $15 to make it again (it was 20 pages). I liked the print quality although mine were black and white so I don't know about doing color.

In regard to Irish food, I have visited Ireland twice the last two years - Donegal and Galway, and what I love the most is the Irish Brown Bread and the Seafood Chowder, neither of which I can get here in the US. I believe the brown bread uses a different kind of wheat flour than ours? And seafood chowder is so wonderful but no one around here seems to think it's worth the bother of making it. The one other place I've been that consistently has it seems to be Newfoundland, perhaps the idea came with their Irish immigrants. There seems to be an Irish bar every few blocks in Manhattan but you seem to more likely to see nachos on the menu than the food I liked in Ireland! Of course they have good fish and chips which you can get here, but I should add that their scones are so much better than the hard sugary ones they have in NY. I agree though that I don't remember anyone in my family having a recipe handed down from Ireland, though my grandmother who was born there lived on a farm in the Midwest, so far away in every sense.

Thanks so much @Rinaldo for the alert for Man's Castle. I saw that film ages ago, it must have been in a revival house, and I still remember it vividly. I am a big fan of Frank Borzage.

I see people have been commenting on the new setting for the Noir Alley intros/outros. I always watch "Ask Eddie" on Youtube, and in the latest installment he explained that it is indeed a cost cutting move by TCM. However Eddie will now be filming at a local bar that he is a fan of, whose owners have agreed to let him film there on their night off. He does admit that he's at least happy about not having to travel to film the segments anymore!

Congratulations @PRgal! I hope your book will be a great success. Maybe I missed it but how did you arrange working with the illustrator? Did you already know each other?

I've seen one of Clara Bow's sound films and in my opinion her voice fits her screen character *perfectly*. She actually was very successful in the sound era until she walked away due to burnout and personal problems. Interestingly she hated making sound films because she could not move naturally as she had in the past due to the placement of the early microphones on the sound stages. Colleen Moore also made an early sound film, the fine film The Power and the Glory with Spencer Tracy. She also had a voice that was fine for her. She chose to retire as well.

It's funny reading the Halloween comments here. When I was growing up a long time ago (I am 70 now) it was just going down the street in whatever costume you got or made up and getting candy. To my mind it wasn't associated with anything truly horrible or bloody in any scary sense at all. Maybe the addition of so much horror movie promotion is the result of cable/streaming TV making it so much easier to watch these things on cue. I think maybe the shift to Halloween parties started in the 1970s or 80s around the time of the Tylenol poisoning scare (not sure if that was local to the NY area or widespread). I know I've mentioned this before, but when I saw Psycho in college, that made me realize that my tolerance for horror/blood/gore on screen is just about zero. Maybe in a silent or other old film where things are generally more suggested than shown I could manage it. But anything from the 60s on I definitely will avoid.

My latest peeve is getting texts that are image only. I have never been a fan of texting anyway, if you want to reach me, call or send an email. But I have reached the point where any automatic image only text (which I can't see or tell who it's from) will get automatically deleted by me. I don't know if it's an ad or what but out it goes.

I had a nice time reading threads on this board so I'll add something. When I was in my early 20s I came to New York to go to Parsons School of Design. I had a painting teacher, I specifically remember his watercolor class. Anyway he went out of his way to encourage me, and was a really fine painter in his own right. He painted lovely landscapes set in the Delaware Water Gap, where he would spend his time when not teaching. The last time I saw him was at one of his gallery shows. He passed away at age 53 some years ago. However I saw his work listed on an email ad from an auction service and it suddenly occurred to me that I could afford to buy one of his works. A few weeks ago two of his landscapes came up for sale, a large oil and a smaller gouache. I bid on the gouache. It was $250 and I won it. It's now hanging in my apartment. I feel very happy about having it though in a way a little sad, partly that it only went for $250, but more that he's not around and I'm not in touch with anyone from school to tell about it. But still am happy about it. I felt he was a very positive influence on me.

Well I will say that having a new iPad has been saving me due to my current status with a decrepit Mac. I've been emailing my family today over the iPad just because it was so frustrating to try to get the email software (Thunderbird) to load on the Mini. I just got the new keyboard and mouse from Apple, the Mini is being built to order (I want lots of storage) so should get here next week. Still appreciate the iPad for its portability as well of course.

I thought I could take a mental break at this point from most of my doctor visits but got a call today about starting up with Evenity, an infusion treatment for my osteoporosis. I had been discussing this for a long time with my endocrinologist but then the rheumatologist I've been seeing all year offered to take over the issue and it's so much easier for me to walk down a few blocks to her floor and get it done. I've had the reclast infusion so I'm sure this won't hurt either but I just don't feel ready to do this every 4 weeks for the next year. I'm going to start on Wednesday since if I don't the November appointment will run into Thanksgiving week. It's just a mental thing really. I can't complain what with the vasculitis being under control now, but sometimes all this gets mentally tiring I guess. I have a pulmonary visit this week too but it didn't make sense to reschedule anything. On the good side nearly all the doctors I've seen in the past year, other than my PCP, are within walking distance, so that actually makes it feel a little less stressful. I did worry that I'd have to walk to have my mammogram as it was scheduled during the UN General Assembly but by the second week the traffic wasn't an issue anymore.

I watched a little Tennis Channel plus but I find it difficult to concentrate sometimes when there's no commentary, even when Alcaraz played Dimitrov there was none which surprised me. This time of year tends to be wacko with odd tournament results sometimes, which is one reason why I'm not on the Holger Rune bandwagon - he's also been playing badly though apparently he's injured - but I just don't believe that winning the Paris Indoors last year was a prediction of greatness. Look at some of the other winners - Jack Sock, Karen Kachenov? Not to pile on but I've just read that Rune has added Boris Becker to his team - I was never a fan frankly but has it occurred to the Rune camp that Becker is not allowed in the UK as a condition of his release from prison for fraud? Not very helpful for Wimbledon. I hope the young players coming up will develop some fun rivalries but I feel we may be in a lull time at the moment. Maybe it's part of the time of year issue though.

Lots of computer talk right now so I will dive in, I finally went ahead and ordered a new Mac Mini. My old one, a second hand thing from 2012, has reached near-death status a couple of times, and when I came back from an 8 day trip Wednesday night and turned it on, after properly shutting it down before I left, it wouldn't even let me go online. I decided to go for it, up to now I was just deleting a lot of extra large files (like scans of negatives for example) to clear up storage but clearly it's not going to last much longer. It's stuck on the 10.15 Mac OS and now I see the new ones are up to OS 14! I do need a new one for scanning my negatives and then making the prints at home though I don't know if my Epson fine art printer will cooperate with OS 14. However I had to take the plunge sometime. In regard to the iPad, I bought my new iPad Air not long ago for $800! and now I see new iPads on sale for $250?? I do use mine often though for traveling and prefer it for zoom/Google meet etc. @kristen111 maybe your issue is with this site rather than your iPad? Not sure but there are an awful lot of pop ups here so that can make things look jerky. I usually browse on FIrefox though it seems to have its own issues.

In regard to rudeness, I had job back in the 90s which involved for a long time answering the phone at a well known performing arts organization and I became convinced then that people were willing to be much more rude over the phone than in person. I once told a caller if he didn't stop yelling I would hang up - he actually calmed down but of course you couldn't do that to a VIP! In regard to Facebook, some of my family members go there but I almost never do anymore. One thing I find creepy about it in addition to all the rudeness and conspiracy theories is that I got at least one "friend request" supposedly from a cousin which he says he never sent to me! It included some comment to the effect of "I have something to share with you" which I knew didn't sound like him at all. It makes you wonder....

Thanks for the update @EtheltoTillie, I will put the show on my Peacock list.

I was interested after reading the Primetimer review but it's already after 10 pm here, do you think they could have posted it a few days sooner? I looked on Peacock and don't see the show. Maybe NBC will put it there later in the week. I do like Jesse L. Martin a lot and the premise sounds intriguing.

Years ago I used to bake as a hobby, and I remember one time making cornbread without the sugar during a family vacation. Someone thought it was strange, but my sister said she liked it that way. Whatever, that was the recipe but I liked it also.

I can't have a washer either, I live in a 1927 prewar building in Manhattan and my super - who is a really nice guy - told me that they just would worry too much about the plumbing. I believe them, I have at least twice had bad kitchen floods which the handyman and I thought came from the dishwasher, but which actually came from a tiny hole in the ancient pipes. I got coop insurance after having the kitchen flooded and having to compensate the person living below me. During Covid I did buy a Laundry Alternative Spin Dryer which spins your clothes 90 percent dry, you would just have to find a way to hand wash first (I used a large bucket in the tub). I prefer to use the laundry room generally but it works in a pinch. But yes, my kingdom for a real washer dryer.

Yes I think Peacock has a super cheap yearly deal every Black Friday. I subscribed, actually re-subscribed to Sling when Disney took the ESPN channels off Spectrum during the US Open. Of course now that the tennis is over, ESPN Is back. Football rules. However if my fairly cheap Spectrum plan (TV Choice) loses channels or becomes too expensive, I might give it up for Sling. The problem is that there are reports that if you try to go internet only, the price of your internet goes way up....so I will wait and see I guess. ETA I see I was responding to posts from Saturday - I don't know if it's my browser or if I go too fast through these threads, anyway, just adding to the randomness I guess!

The Disney Spectrum fight has also prevented many people here in NY from seeing the US Open. I decided to take out Sling Orange for a month at half price - $20 isn't much - and then will see how long this goes on. I did add Hollywood Extra for $6 so I could watch TCM in case I make the switchover. It's annoying but Disney is trying to force the cable customers to buy all their channels which we shouldn't have to do. So I blame them.

Okay Maddie is up a break in the third. I'm not watching live because I realize I just can't stand Sabalenka. I really hope for a Coco Maddie final though I will probably feel torn as for which of them to root for. During the delay Chris Evert mentioned a match at the US Open between Martina and her that was interrupted by some drunks having a "fight" in the crowd. Then I remembered that I was actually at that match! It was in 1981 I think. What I remember was that the action stopped and the players were looking up confused. It sounded like some drunk guys yelling "Go Chrissie!" The security people got them out of there and after that I saw Bud Collins go over to interview the other people who had been sitting around them.

I'm so happy right now for Ben Shelton! What a year he's had, struggling since Australia and now making the semis of the US Open at age 20. I don't have anything against Tiafoe, he seems like a nice guy but I have a feeling that Ben has the potential to be a great player and to actually win a major before he's done. I had the match on without watching all the time (actually my TV sound dropped out for awhile) but I went over to see Ben serve it out. Really exciting. I switched over to Sling Orange having lost ESPN on Spectrum so I will re-watch the match on ESPN 3 tomorrow. Congrats to Ben. As far as the women are concerned, I was hoping for Ons to finally win a major but it didn't happen. So I hope Coco will win. Like Ons I think she is under a lot of pressure to win the big one, so I hope it happens for her. I wasn't that surprised that she beat Penko, Jelena is bound to have ups and downs like that.

Chris Eubanks did some commentary for the Ben Shelton / Tommy Paul match. I think he does an excellent job. Of course he's also had his best year on the court as well, and it's great to see. He seems like a great person as well.

I saw Man's Castle ages ago in a revival house and remember really loving it, I am a big fan of Frank Borzage's work. Loretta Young started in the silent era, I think at age 13 (!) in the Lon Chaney film Laugh Clown, Laugh.